20 January 2013 - 3 February 2013, Persepolis, Shiraz, Bandar-e-Abbas, Iran
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| Persepolis |
Few hundred kilometres south from Isfahan lie Persepolis and Shiraz, my next destinations. By nearing the Persian gulf the
weather became milder and I could say goodbye to winter at the
end of January.
On
20 January I left Isfahan for Persepolis and Shiraz where I was hosted for almost a week by
a young architect who invited me and other travellers at his place through couch-surfing.
After enjoying the city of the famous poet Hafez - who is a kind of national hero in Iran - I headed to the southern port-city of Bandar-e-Abbas on the Persian gulf.
In Shiraz I applied – in a office together with many Afghans
- for an extension of the visa until March.
Notwithstanding the visa extension, I felt it was time to move on
and to leave this wonderful country.
The idea was to keep on
with the overland travel. With my visa for India ready in the
passport and some experiences planned to do there, the next
destination was clear. Travelling from Iran to India however is not an
easy task. In the past it was an important trade route - the Silk Road -
and during the 60's-70's many young travellers used to journey from
Europe to India along this route. However, current political and
security conditions have changed and made it pretty a challenge.
I puzzled for a long time trying to understand the best option to reach India overland by avoiding Afghanistan. The following were the options to do so:
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| Trying to get rid of material attachments, I donated my sunglasses to this kid in Bandar-e-Abbas |
Especially in the south-west area near the city of Quetta at the junction between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran the situation for travellers is not easy and it is said that local police escorts foreigners to preserve their security.
However, visa for Pakistan
can be obtained only in your home country and the procedure is not
easy. The Pakistani embassy in Teheran even refused to give me a temporary visa just to cross the country
for few days so I had to give up this option.
2 - The second option is much longer: travelling through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kirgykistan, China, Tibet and
Nepal. I had to renounce to this option because in winter this region
is extremely cold, visa for some of these countries is rather
complex and entering Tibet is not always easy.
3 - Hitching a boat from the southern Iranian port
of Bandar Abbas or from Dubai (reachable via ferry from
Iran) to Mumbay. After completing some research on the subject I realised that
also this option was attempted by many travellers in the past but without
success.
Hence, notwithstanding my motivation to travel overland, I took a ferry to Dubai from where I took off with a low-cost flight to New Delhi.
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| Persepolis |
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| Shiraz |
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